How to get a job in a school with no experience

Plenty of school jobs are open to people with no school experience. Midday supervisor, kitchen assistant, cleaner, exam invigilator and some admin roles rarely ask for any, and apprentice and trainee teaching assistant posts are designed for beginners. For other roles, especially teaching assistant jobs, a few weeks of volunteering in a school is the quickest way to strengthen an application, and it gets you known by the staff who do the hiring.

Roles that rarely need experience

Role	What it involves	Typical hours
Midday supervisor	Supervising pupils at lunch, in the dining hall and playground	A couple of hours a day, term time
Kitchen assistant	Preparing and serving food, cleaning the kitchen	Part-time, term time
Cleaner	Cleaning classrooms and shared areas, usually before or after school	Early mornings or evenings
Exam invigilator	Supervising exams in secondary schools	Seasonal, around exam periods
Apprentice teaching assistant	Classroom support while studying for a qualification	Usually term time, close to full time
Office assistant or receptionist	Answering phones, dealing with parents, admin	Varies; some all year

Lunchtime and cleaning posts often get fewer applicants than teaching assistant jobs, and plenty of people use them to get in. Once you are on the staff, you hear about internal vacancies, get training, and can ask to help in classrooms. Moving from lunchtime duties into a classroom post is a common step. See Lunchtime supervisor (midday meals supervisor) for what that job involves.

What the pay looks like

Most school support jobs in maintained schools and many academies are paid on the NJC pay spine. From 1 April 2026, the bottom point (SCP 3) is £25,614 a year full time, about £13.28 an hour. Entry-level roles usually start at or near that point.

The figure on the advert is often the full-time equivalent. Most of these jobs are part-time and term time only, so you are paid a proportion of it, typically as a percentage of the full-time salary spread over twelve monthly payments. How term-time-only pay is calculated explains why the actual salary can look much lower than the advertised one.

Apprentices can be paid less. The apprentice minimum wage is £8.00 an hour for those under 19 or in the first year of an apprenticeship, though many schools pay more. After that, the age-related minimum wage applies, which is £12.71 an hour from age 21.

Teaching assistant jobs without experience

Teaching assistant posts are the most popular way into schools and the most competitive. Schools often list classroom experience as desirable, so you can still be shortlisted if you show the right qualities elsewhere.

Look for posts labelled “trainee”, “apprentice” or “level 1” teaching assistant, and for one-to-one support roles where the school mainly wants patience and reliability. The full picture is in How to become a teaching assistant.

Volunteering to build experience

A volunteer placement in a school is the most direct evidence you can offer. Options include:

• helping with reading in a local primary school
• supporting school trips or clubs
• volunteering with a youth group, holiday club or sports club
• becoming a school governor, which also teaches you how schools are run

Contact the school office and ask whether they take volunteers. Expect to fill in a form, give references and have a DBS check; checks for volunteers are free from DBS. Volunteering to get experience for public sector jobs has more ideas.

Writing an application with no school experience

All school jobs use an application form instead of a CV, because of safer recruitment rules. Every gap in your history will be asked about, so explain each in a line.

The supporting statement is where you make your case. Work through the person specification and give an example for each criterion, drawing on anything you have done: retail, care, parenting, sport coaching, volunteering. Panels look for reliability, good communication, the ability to follow instructions, and a sensible attitude to behaviour and safeguarding. A clear example of dealing calmly with a difficult customer carries more weight than a general statement that you love working with children.

Show you understand the safeguarding side. One sentence saying you would report any concern about a child to the designated safeguarding lead, and why, tells the panel you know what the job involves.

Where to find the jobs

In England, the free Teaching Vacancies service lists support roles as well as teaching posts. Councils advertise maintained school jobs on their own sites, and academy trusts often use their own careers pages. In Scotland, school support roles are mostly on myjobscotland. Small primary schools sometimes just put an advert on their website or newsletter, so check local schools directly. Current roles are listed under school support jobs.